Big Mac prices by country
Big Mac (one burger) costs from $2.51 in India to $9.08 in Switzerland, across 45 countries priced in US dollars and in local currency.
The Big Mac is the most-quoted price in economics. The Economist started publishing its Big Mac Index in 1986 as a light-hearted way to test purchasing-power parity, the theory that a currency should buy the same basket of goods anywhere. Because the burger is close to identical everywhere it is sold, the gap between what it costs in two countries is a rough read on whether a currency is over- or undervalued.
The numbers
| Country | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | $2.51 | 227 INR | 60 min |
| Indonesia | $2.52 | 42,500 IDR | 69 min |
| Egypt | $2.65 | 125 EGP | 88 min |
| Philippines | $2.84 | 169 PHP | 84 min |
| Vietnam | $2.89 | 76,000 VND | 62 min |
| Japan | $3.03 | 480 JPY | 11 min |
| South Africa | $3.36 | 54.9 ZAR | 45 min |
| Malaysia | $3.39 | 13.75 MYR | 53 min |
| China | $3.66 | 25.5 CNY | 40 min |
| South Korea | $3.74 | 5,500 KRW | 16 min |
| Pakistan | $3.86 | 1,080 PKR | 7.7 h |
| Romania | $3.98 | 17.45 RON | 30 min |
| Thailand | $4.30 | 135 THB | 74 min |
| Brazil | $4.45 | 23.9 BRL | 59 min |
| New Zealand | $4.94 | 8.6 NZD | 13 min |
| Hungary | $4.99 | 1,660 HUF | 35 min |
| Peru | $5.03 | 16.9 PEN | 1.5 h |
| Saudi Arabia | $5.07 | 19 SAR | 25 min |
| United Arab Emirates | $5.17 | 19 AED | 21 min |
| Lebanon | $5.36 | 480,000 LBP | 1.7 h |
| Chile | $5.42 | 4,790 CLP | 52 min |
| Czechia | $5.50 | 115 CZK | 31 min |
| Argentina | $5.53 | 8,000 ARS | 1.6 h |
| Canada | $5.54 | 7.7 CAD | 15 min |
| Australia | $5.69 | 8.5 AUD | 13 min |
| Singapore | $5.78 | 7.45 SGD | 22 min |
| Turkey | $5.90 | 255 TRY | 89 min |
| Costa Rica | $6.04 | 2,990 CRC | 57 min |
| United States | hidden, in play right now | ||
| Mexico | $6.17 | 109 MXN | 1.5 h |
| Colombia | $6.21 | 22,900 COP | 2.3 h |
| Poland | $6.25 | 22.7 PLN | 47 min |
| Israel | $6.36 | 20 ILS | 19 min |
| Germany | $7.05 | 6.08 EUR | 19 min |
| Spain | $7.05 | 6.08 EUR | 35 min |
| France | $7.05 | 6.08 EUR | 24 min |
| Ireland | $7.05 | 6.08 EUR | 21 min |
| Italy | $7.05 | 6.08 EUR | 30 min |
| Netherlands | $7.05 | 6.08 EUR | 21 min |
| Portugal | $7.05 | 6.08 EUR | 47 min |
| United Kingdom | $7.08 | 5.29 GBP | 24 min |
| Sweden | $7.26 | 67 SEK | 21 min |
| Norway | $7.52 | 76 NOK | 16 min |
| Uruguay | $8.76 | 339 UYU | 69 min |
| Switzerland | $9.08 | 7.3 CHF | 16 min |
Source: The Economist's Big Mac Index, January 2026 edition, which collects local-currency prices from McDonald's outlets and franchisee sites in 54 economies. Full methodology.
What the spread shows
The cheapest big mac in the game is in India at $2.51; the most expensive is in Switzerland at $9.08. That is a 3.6× difference for the same thing, against a median of $5.53 across all 45 countries.
Ranking by earnings instead of dollars rearranges the table. Pakistan has the longest wait, about 7.7 hours of the average local wage, while in Japan it is roughly 11 minutes. A country can look cheap in dollars and expensive in hours at the same time, and for most people the hours are what actually matter.
Other items
Why this costs what it costs
- The salary comparison you keep seeing online is wrongConverting a wage at the market exchange rate answers a question nobody asked. Purchasing power parity answers the one you meant, and has its own traps.
- Why poor countries are cheap, and why it is not what you thinkThe real answer has nothing to do with profits or standards. It is a sixty-year-old piece of economics about haircuts, and it explains most of the price map.
- Four things set every price, and only one of them is the productThe same can, the same recipe, the same machine that made it, and a five-fold price gap between two countries. What follows is what actually sits in that difference.